


Negative Splits

by justwhatialwayswanted



Series: Apartment 314 [6]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Gen, and jean loves drama, gratuitous mentions of running, marissa is just mentioned but hoo boy she is doing the MOST, neil is bad at identifying attraction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:43:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24801784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justwhatialwayswanted/pseuds/justwhatialwayswanted
Summary: Jean's morning runs with Neil are his main source of amusement for the day. First he listens to Neil rant about whatever has annoyed him recently, and then he watches Andrew pretend not to care.
Relationships: Andrew Minyard & Jean Moreau, Neil Josten & Jean Moreau
Series: Apartment 314 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1785295
Comments: 27
Kudos: 173





	Negative Splits

Jean has a morning routine, six days out of seven. He wakes up, puts on running clothes, grabs his phone and keys, laces up his shoes, and is out of the apartment before Andrew is even awake.

His routine has changed over the past year, though, in a couple ways. The first way is that Jean gets up fifteen minutes earlier now. The second way is that now, when he closes the door behind him, he finds Neil in the hallway waiting for him.

"How's Andrew?" Neil asks, like he always does.

"Asleep," Jean replies, like he always does. "How are Sir and King?"

"Bastards," Neil says. And with that, the pre-run ritual is completed and they head down the stairs to the street in silence.

That's about it for the silence, though, because once they get started on their run, Neil starts talking and does not stop for their entire loop. It's one of the reasons Jean doesn't bother to bring earbuds anymore. 

"Marissa invited me to her sister's baby shower yesterday," Neil says as soon as they step out onto the sidewalk. "I mean, what the fuck? If it was  _ her _ baby shower I would understand. Not that I would go, but I would understand why she was inviting me. I don't even know her sister's name. I didn't know she had a sister. And I didn't  _ want _ to know she had a sister."

Jean is a little more invested in the Marissa drama that Neil delivers every morning than he probably should be. "What did you say?"

"I looked her dead in the eye and said, 'What's a baby shower?'" Neil huffs as they turn a corner. "That didn't stop her."

"Of course not," Jean says. "So what did you say then?"

"Well, she explained what a baby shower was, which was a painful process. I mean, that was partially my fault, because I made it worse. Because she compared it to a bridal shower, so I had to ask what that was too, because you know, I was committed. But  _ then _ she explained, and then she asked if we don't have those in the UK."

That's a surprise. Jean learns something new every day. "Why does she think you're British?" 

Neil shrugs. "My uncle sends me these stupid Union Jack sticky notes every few months. I use them because I might as well. I think it's his version of a subtle reminder that this country is a dumpster fire. He keeps telling me he thinks I should raise Sir and King near their extended family. But anyway. So then I said I wouldn't know, and it turns out that was a mistake because then she said if I'd never been then I should 'totally come see what it's like, it'll be great, I promise!' And then I told her I thought having kids was irresponsible considering that the planet's going to die pretty soon, so ethically I couldn't go to the baby shower. And then she said she had a meeting."

Jean mulls it over. "I would have just said I was busy, but your way is probably more effective."

"Well, I fucking hope so. Otherwise I'm going to have to get drastic. I do  _ not _ know why she keeps talking to me."

Jean must let a a laugh or something slip, because Neil scowls up at him and says, "What?"

"Nothing," Jean replies. Neil is nowhere near his type (which has nothing to do with him personally, most people aren't), but that doesn't change the fact that he knows objectively attractive when he sees it. Also, he's been hearing about Marissa's attempts to pursue Neil for several months now, and he's lived with Andrew long enough to know  _ his _ type, which means that he would have figured it out anyway. Neil's obliviousness is so complete that Jean half-suspects it's an act. "Part of me hopes that Marissa will give up on talking to you, but part of me hopes that she won't, just so I can keep hearing about it."

"Oh, I see how it is. Maybe I should just leave you in the dust since you clearly don't care about me."

"You would never," Jean scoffs.

"I'm feeling tempted right now." Just to prove his point, Neil starts to speed up, but they do this about every three days, so Jean is as familiar with this threat as he is with how to get rid of it.

"I'll tell you about Andrew's latest horrible dessert creation," he bargains. (This one was a waffle ice cream sandwich, which would have been a decent idea if it wasn't for the tooth-rotting amount of toppings Andrew then proceeded to pile on top.)

Neil slows down again. "Deal."

Their six-kilometer loop (Jean intentionally refers to it in kilometers and he will never stop, thank you very much) brings them back to the apartment building, where Jean starts his cooldown and Neil leaves to do some more. (As Neil has explained, chartered accountancy and personal training don't exactly offer the same amount of physical activity over the course of a workday, which is why he has to do long runs every day so he doesn't start doing laps around the office. Jean still isn't sure how many kilometers Neil gets in before work, and he's not sure he wants to know. He also doesn't want to know how soon Neil's knees are going to give out on him.)

Really, Neil is an ideal running partner for two reasons. The first one is that he's willing to match Jean's pace but also does enough cardio to keep them from slowing down in the last third of their route. The second one is that running with Neil provides endless entertainment, both during the run and after it.

Andrew is usually awake and sitting at the kitchen counter by the time Jean gets out of the shower, and he knows Jean's schedule well enough to mutter "How's the rabbit?" as if he'd rather ask about anyone else on the planet.

Today, Jean replies with the truth, like he always does. "Faster than me and annoyed by his coworkers."

When did his morning routine get so specific?

"But it was a good run," he adds, just to mix things up. "Negative splits."

Andrew frowns sleepily into his tea like he can't even begin to fathom negative splits this early in the morning. Jean honestly isn't sure if he knows what they are, or if he willfully avoids anything related to running simply because Jean does it a lot. Either one wouldn't surprise him. 

Also, his hair is sticking up in the back, and Jean decides then and there to make a silent bet with himself about how long it's going to take Andrew to notice, pretend like he doesn't care, and then give in and fix it.

"One of his coworkers has been flirting with him for months," Jean adds, just to be annoying. "I would tell him to go to HR, but I don't think he's realized yet. He just thinks she's uniquely irritating."

"I don't care," Andrew says into his mug, and Jean almost believes him.

"She invited him to her sister's baby shower. He didn't even know she had a sister."

That gets Andrew's attention, because he wrinkles his nose and says, "Urgh. Tell him to tell her to fuck off."

"He told her he thought having children was irresponsible because of the approaching heat death of the planet."

That gets him a considering look, and Andrew really must not be very awake yet, because he's relaxed enough to admit, "Respectable effort."

"I'll pass your praise along."

"If you do that I'll kill you," Andrew says solemnly.

Jean can't help feeling a little self-satisfied when he replies, "But don't you want me to tell you what he says?"

The look he gets in return would probably terrify most people, but Jean's built up a tolerance to Andrew's glares, so he just laughs.


End file.
